[ale] How old is this list?
jonhall80 at comcast.net
jonhall80 at comcast.net
Tue Feb 2 20:32:46 EST 2021
>I'm very glad maddog gave that alpha to Linus!
Well, I should point out that it was actually DEC that gave the Alpha to Linus...I just "facilitated" it.....long story....good over beers.
After I started that project going I found an engineering group in Digital Semiconductor that consisted of people like Andy Riebs, Jim Paradis, David Rusling and a few more that had, independent of me, chosen GNU/Linux as an OS to port after looking at SCO, BSD and a couple others.
They were working by themselves, but only doing a 32-bit port, not taking advantage of the 64-bit address space, only the speed of the Alpha and its ability to move data. They thought that even if they did get the kernel and libraries ported to the Alpha that it will be too much work to port all the rest of the 32-bit code to a 64-bit address space.
I knew that was a misconception, since all of the GNU code (compilers, utilities, libraries, etc.) had ALREADY been made 64-bit clean, because that port had already been done for DEC OSF/1 Alpha.
I went to their offices and yelled....er...ah...discussed this with them, so they did an investigation, found out I was right (of course), tidied up their project (no one ever looked at it again) and joined the 64-bit port.
At the end of the port I wanted to make sure that it was a true 64 bit port, so I wrote email to Linus to confirm:
"Oh yes," Linus said, "I just did an mmap() for 5 TB into virtual address space."
"That is good enough," I said.
And it was then eleven years before Microsoft had a true 64-bit address space operating system, called "VISTA", which I always considered Microsoft's greatest gift to GNU/Linux.
md
> On 02/02/2021 4:56 PM Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> I miss my huge, cue ball size trackball. Alas, it was a serial mouse. One of my cats would continue to try to steal the ball after he knocked it off my desk once and it rolled away.
>
> I once dug through the archives and found my first post. What a noob! Now I'm "the old guy". Wouldn't be where I am were it not for ALE. Would be a lot smaller if I would drink less ale 🤣
>
> Linux is so much more than it used to be. I'm very glad Maddog gave that alpha to Linus! Stood in a line to get that first AMD Opteron cpu and mobo and had a working, mostly 64-bit install about 6 hours later. To bad that box got hit by lightning 5 weeks later.
>
> Good times.
>
> On February 2, 2021 12:48:59 PM EST, "Jon "maddog" Hall via Ale" <ale at ale.org> wrote:
>
> > > The Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts were a group of mostly university students who loved (GNU). There are still web pages existent at ale.org that tell much of the history.
> >
> > The group founded in December of 1994, and in those days the first thing you did was form a mailing list, so I would assume that this list or something deeply connected to it started at that time.
> >
> > The Atlanta Linux Showcase started in 1996. If I remember correctly it was held on the Georgia Tech Campus the first year, at the Apparel Mart downtown in 1998, The Cobb Galleria in 1999 and 2000.
> >
> > In 2001 the original organizers had all graduated and were busy with jobs, buying houses, etc. and the USENIX organization took it over.
> >
> > USENIX made four gigantic mistakes:
> >
> > o they renamed it to the Annual Linux Showcase
> > o they moved it to Oakland, California in November, 2001
> > o they tried to take a free (as in beer) event and charge 350 dollars for it
> > o they allowed Osama Bin-Laden to crash airplanes into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001
> >
> > When USENIX had not sold a single reservation within three weeks of the event, I convinced them to make it free and about 300-400 people showed up, but USENIX never produced another Linux only show.
> >
> > The ale.org web site is still there, with just a few 404s. If you want to see what the original events were like there are even some pictures.
> >
> > It is nice that the mailing list is still active. The Linux group that I started in 1994 and ran for ten years also has a mailing list, but it is much less active than yours.
> >
> > Congratulations to Tod for thinking about retiring....I still have too much fun and I will retire with my mouse still clutched in my cold, dead hands.
> >
> > Peace and love,
> >
> > maddog
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > > > > On 02/02/2021 10:50 AM Paul Manno via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > There are probably still some of us lurking here who were around when the list was first
> > > created and who helped create those Atlanta Linux Showcase shows. In either case, I am
> > > not going to even try to think about when I started using either Linux or UNIX... LoL
> > >
> > >
> > > On Tue, Feb 2, 2021 at 9:59 AM Larry Johnson via Ale < ale at ale.org mailto:ale at ale.org > wrote:
> > >
> > > > > > > My memory isn't great as I'm about to turn 70, but I first installed
> > > > Linux in early 1995, and seem to remember signing up for the list not
> > > > long thereafter.
> > > >
> > > > Which means I might have been a lurker for around 25 years.
> > > >
> > > > On 2/2/21 8:47 AM, Robert Reese via Ale wrote:
> > > > > Hi Tod,
> > > > >
> > > > > Monday, February 1, 2021, 12:19:30 PM, you wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > >> Am I misremembering? Because I think I got on this list when I was in grad school which would have been in the mid-late 90s. The reason I'm asking is that I am thinking of retiring. I was a really old grad student and now I'm retiring early. Even so. Is it possible I've been on this list my entire professional career?
> > > > > I'd say it's entirely possible. I joined in the late 90's also.
> > > > >
> > > > > Cheers,
> > > > > Robert Reese~
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >> _______________________________________________
> > > > >> Ale mailing list
> > > > >> Ale at ale.org mailto:Ale at ale.org
> > > > >> https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> > > > >> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> > > > >> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Cheers,
> > > > > Robert~
> > > > >
> > > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > > Ale mailing list
> > > > > Ale at ale.org mailto:Ale at ale.org
> > > > > https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> > > > > See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> > > > > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > Ale mailing list
> > > > Ale at ale.org mailto:Ale at ale.org
> > > > https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> > > > See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> > > > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
> > > >
> > > > > > > _______________________________________________
> > > Ale mailing list
> > > Ale at ale.org
> > > https://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> > > See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> > > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
> > >
> > > > >
> > >
> --
> Computers amplify human error
> Super computers are really cool
>
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